The Gate (1987)

Don’t you just hate when you open up a gate in your backyard by mistake?

The Gate (1987)Directed By: Tibor Takács

The PrologueWell as much of a fan of 80’s style horror as I am, I had never seen, The Gate, until now. I do know that it certainly seems to hold a place in the heart of a lot who have seen it, so that’s reason enough for checking it out then right? I mean what’s not to love about a tale of kids who accidentally open up.well.a gate..in their backyard? I’m sure had I seen this as a kid in the 80’s I’d have been weary of digging around in my yard from then on out. And coming from a guy who when he was a kid wanted his own computer to create a woman of his own after having seen Weird Science, I assure you I’m not kidding in the least. But we can save Kelly LeBrock for another day. Let’s just all check out The Gate!

The MovieAh, kids! You can always count on them to get into trouble, especially in the movies. This held up even more so in the 80’s and here we have three young children who accidentally release a horde of nasty, pint-sized demons from a hole in a suburban backyard. What follows is a classic battle between good and evil as the three kids struggle to overcome a nightmarish hell that is literally taking over the Earth. It may start off a bit slow, but for the record, it picks up a lot later on so hold with it.

I’ve always been a sucker for horror films in the 80’s, and I won’t discriminate against children ones. Now days if you see a horror film that is PG-13, more times than not, you can’t expect a whole lot in the way of real horror from it. As this movie shows, in 1987 things were much different. Eye balls are stabbed, faces are melted, and even with it all being PG-13, nothing at all really feels as if it is. That’s always a plus. When you’re not a kid it helps to see a movie that to spite having kids be the center of it, comes across as a legit horror film. Even wrapped in it’s 80’s charm you need something more. And this ones does have a little something more to it.

For a movie that starts rather slow it picks up nicely around the 40 minute mark. When all hell breaks loose and what the kids have unleashed shows it’s self at full force, we see little demons, big demons, zombies, and all sorts of weird and horrific things! A very 80ish part of the story is the fact that the kids seek help from a rock band who’s musical material actually works as a way to fight back against the gate that they open up by accident. But it’s always cool to know you can use to hidden messages for something useful when it comes to heavy metal music.

Now even with the doom and gloom that happens to these poor kids (and their old ass dog for that matter), things still go a far more predictable way. The saving grace for the ending is the couple false finishes that go down before our legit end game in the film. By the time the end reaches it’s climax you do wonder just how things will go and just what on earth these kids can do to get out of this mess. Overall for a PG-13 film, I think it’s pretty damn good and way better than I assumed it would be going into watching it.

The ConclusionWell it’s a nice kids style horror film from the 80’s that just so happens to pack a big enough punch for everyone else to enjoy as well. I’m sure if you saw this back in the day the nostalgia helps with it, but like I said before, I had never seen this til now. But I’m happy I watched it and I think there’s some really cool stuff here to see.